ailes and 1st earl of Bothwell. It was
this Patrick who laid the foundation of the family fortunes. Having
fought against King James III. at the battle of Sauchieburn in 1488, he
was rewarded by the new king, James IV., with the earldom of Bothwell,
the office of lord high admiral and other dignities. He also received
many grants of land, including the lordship of Bothwell, which had been
taken from John Ramsay, Lord Bothwell (d. 1513), the favourite of James
III.

James Hepburn succeeded in 1556 to his father's titles, lands and
hereditary offices, including that of lord high admiral of Scotland.
Though a Protestant, he supported the government of Mary of Guise,
showed himself violently anti-English, and led a raid into England,
subsequently in 1559 meeting the English commissioners and signing
articles for peace on the border. The same year he seized L1000 secretly
sent by Elizabeth to the lords of the congregation. In retaliation Arran
occupied and stripped his castle at Crichton, whereupon Bothwell in
November sent Arran a challenge, which the latter declined. In December
he was sent by the queen dowager to secure Stirling, and in 1560 was
despatched on a mission to France, visiting Denmark on the way, where he
either married or seduced Anne, daughter of Christopher Thorssen, whom
he afterwards deserted, and who came to Scotland in 1563 to obtain
redress. He joined Mary at Paris in September, and in 1561 was sent by
her as a commissioner to summon the parliament; in February he arrived
in Edinburgh and was chosen a privy councillor on the 6th of September.
He now entered into obligations to keep the peace with his various
rivals, but was soon implicated in riots and partisan disorders, and was
ordered in December to leave the city. In March 1562, having made up his
quarrel with Arran, he was accused of having proposed to the latter a
project for seizing the queen, and in May he was imprisoned in Edinburgh
castle, whence he succeeded in escaping on the 28th of August. On the
23rd of September he submitted to the queen. Murray's influence,
however, being now supreme, he embarked in December for France, but was
driven by storms on to Holy Island, where he was detained, and was
subsequently, on the 18th of January 1564, seized at Berwick and sent by
Elizabeth to the Tower, whence he was soon liberated and proceeded to
France. After these adventures he returned to Scotland in March 1565,
but withdrew once more before the